March 27, 1884] 



NA TUKE 



519 



The mature insect closely resembles \.\\>i Anaplic pand'i, Boisfl., 

 though under the latter name, it would seem, there are several well- 

 marked local races. The genus is found in West Africa as well 

 as Natal ; and it appears that in the several species the colour, 

 size, shape, and materi il of the common nest, as well as the 

 individual silky cocoons, markedly differ. The habits of these 

 moths when still more fully kn^wn in their na'ive haunts will 

 yet form a mist interesting chapter to the traveller. Oi Anaphe 

 four species have bithert ) been described, viz. A. v^iiz/afrom 

 Old Calabar, A. ambigiix from Angola, and A. reiiculata and 

 A. panda from Natal. To these Lord Walsingham adds A. cartiri 

 from the Gold Coa^t, and A. infracta from the Caneroons. — 

 A piper, on the hairs occurring on the stamens of plants, 

 by Mr. Greenwod Pirn, was read. As to the morphology 

 of these he sums up the groups thus : (i) simple unicellular, 

 subulate, smooth, Alalva, Campanula ; (2) unicellular, subulate, 

 rugose or papillar, Ciiphea, Ncriiim, Eutoca ; (3) unicellular, 

 flattened, spathulate, rugose or striate, Verbasctim, Ce'sia, 

 Antirrhinum ; (4) pluricellular, simple, smooth, St/via, Ad/ia 

 tod'i ; (5) pluricellular, simple, rugose or striate, Ana^alHs, 

 T/tuntiergia ; (6) pluricellular and branchel, Bro-uallia and some 

 forms oi Sakia ; (7) pluricellular with glandular tip, Oxalis, 

 Gtsnera ; (8) multicellular, Convohu'iis, Ipom<ta. — A commu- 

 nication was read, " Closure of the Cyclostomatous Bryozoa," 

 by Arthur W. Waters. While admitting that the group pos- 

 sesses few characters available for purposes of scientific deter- 

 mication, he nevertheless points out that the ovicells have a 

 greater importance than that hitherto accorded theai ; also that 

 the connecting pores are comparable with the rosette plates of 

 the Chilostomata, and that stress must be laid on the size of the 

 zooecial tube, and more particularly to the position and variation 

 of its closure. The author states that in the Cyclo^tomala (sim- 

 plest Bryozoa) he has found a calcareous partition clo;ing the 

 tubular zjoecium, thus protecting the colony ; whereas in the 

 Chilostomata there is a horny operculum, which, unlike the 

 other, is not a sign of death, but, being movable, protects the 

 living polypide, and through it the colony. — A paper was read 

 on the life-history of ALcidium bellidis, by Mr. C. B. Plowright, 

 in which he gives the results of a series of experiments 

 noting the infection and appearance of the Uredo. He differs 

 in opinion from most authorities, who regard the Aicidium of 

 the daisy as a variety of yJi. compositarum, while he demon- 

 strates it to be a true hetercecismal Uredine. — The list communi- 

 cation read was by Mr. F. Kitton, 01 some Diatomace.-e from 

 the Island of Socotra, in which a number of new species are 

 described and figured. 



Geological Society, March 5.— Prof. T. G. Boimey,F.R.S., 

 president, in the chair. — F. N. Maude, John Potts, and Corbet 

 Woodall were elected Fellows, and Dr. Charles Barrois, of 

 Lille, a Foreign Correspondent of the Society. — The following 

 communications were read : — On the structure and formation of 

 coal, by E. Wethered, F.G.S., F.C.S. The conclusions on the 

 evidence elicited from the author's investigations were (r) that 

 some coals were practically made up of spores, others were not, 

 these variation^ often occurring in the beds of the same seam ; 

 (2) the so-called bituminous coals were largely made up of the 

 substance which the author termed hydrocarbon, to which wood- 

 tissue undoubtedly contributed. An appendix to the paper, 

 written by Prof. Harker, Professor of Botany and Geology at 

 the Royal Agricultural College, Cirencester, dealt with the de- 

 termination of the spores seen in Mr, Wethered's microscopic 

 sections. The writer concluded that the fjrms in the coal 

 were from a group of plants having affinities with the modern 

 genus Isodes, and from this Isoetoid character he suggests 

 the generic title of Isoctoides pending further investigation. — On 

 strain in connection with crystallisation and the development of 

 perlitic structure, by Frank Rutley, F.G.S. — Sketches of South- 

 African geology ; No. i, a sketch of the high-level coal-field of 

 South Africa, by W. H. Penning, F.G.S. In this paper the 

 author gave a sketch of the high-level coal-field of the Trans- 

 vaal and the neighbouring region. This coal-field was described 

 as extending 400 miles from north to south, with an average 

 breadth of 140 miles, so that its area is about 56,000 sriaare 

 miles. The tract consists of an elevated plateau forming the 

 " High Veldts " of the Transvaal and the plains of the Orange 

 Free .State. It slopes away to the north-west, and is scarped to 

 the south and east by the heights known as the Stormberg and 

 Drakensberg Mountains ; nearly all the principal rivers of South 

 Africa take their rise in this tract of land. The coal-bearing 

 beds forming the plateau rest unconformably in the north upon 



deposits probably of Upper PalaeozDic aje, described as the 

 Megalie^barg beds In the south-west the Lower Karoo beds 

 underlie the coal-bsds, also unconformably. The b"ds of the 

 high grounds c msist abive of saad,tones, called the "High 

 Veldt beds " by the author, and below of shales, for which the 

 name of " Kimberley beds" is proposed, after the chief town of 

 Griqualaiid West, in which district they form nearly the whole 

 surface. These two series are conformable, and generally lie 

 horizontally. In the shales coal occurs only in miimte pitches ; 

 the seams of coal are intersi ratified with the sandstones, into 

 which the shales pass up gradually, and which sometitaes include 

 thick' bedded grits and co iglomerates. Both shales and sand- 

 stones contain interstratifications and numerous dykes of trap, 

 which have rarely produced much alteratio 1 in the sedimentary 

 beds, from which the author concludes that the eruptions were 

 sub-aqueous and contemporaneous, or nearly so. Owing to the 

 persistent horizontality of the rocks, the mountains and valleys 

 are merely carved out of the plateau, so that the thickness of 

 the deposits is easily measured. The author gave 2300 feet as 

 the minimum thickneis of each series. By a companative sec- 

 tion it was shown that the coal-bearing sandstones (" High Veldt 

 beds") are the " Upper Karoo " of Stow, and the "Siormberg 

 beds" of Dunn. The " Kimberley beds " are the Upper Karoo 

 beds of Dunn. In the latter part of his paper the author 

 noticed briefly the different localities where coal has been found, 

 namely, Newcastle, Lange's Nek, the Lebelela^berg Mountains, 

 near New Scotland, several places on the High Veldt, Wem- 

 burg, Brandfoote, Cornet Spruit, Burgersdorf, and Indwe, 

 twenty miles east of Dordrecht. The most northerly point of 

 the Transvaal where coal has been found is on the Letsebo 

 River. West of the Drakensberg coal occurs at a lower level. 



Entomological Society, March S- — Special General Meet- 

 ing. — Mr. J. W. Dunning, president, in the chair. — Prof. J. O. 

 Westwood, hon. life president, proposed, and Mr. H. T. 

 Stainton seconded, a proposition "That it is desirable to obtain 

 for the Society a Royal Charter of Incorporation." After a short 

 discussion, the resolution was carried ncjn. con. 



Ordinary Meeting. — Prof. Westwood, hon. li-'e president, 

 in the chair. — Two new members were elected. — Mr. E. A. 

 Fitch exhibited a large geodephagous larva said to have been 

 coughed up at Maldon by a young man who was suffering from 

 bronchitis. — Mr. J W. Dunning protested against the irregular 

 manner in which the names of per-ons had lately bt^en used in 

 entomological nomenclature ; and Mr. H. J. Eiwes expressed 

 his disapproval of the use of Hindoo mythological, and other 

 names not of Latin or Greek derivation, in the same manner. — 

 Mr. E. Saunders read the concluding part of his synopsis of the 

 British Hyinenopkra Aculeata, part iii. Apidcs ; and also, further 

 notes on the terminal segments of aculeate Hymenoptera. 



EDINBtJRGH 

 Mathematical Society, March 14. — A. J. G. Barclay, vice- 

 president, in the chair. — Mr. W. J. Macdonald gave an account 

 of Pascal's " Essais pour les Coniques." — Mr. R. E. Allardice 

 read a paper on the geometry of the spherical surface ; and 

 Prof. Chrystal gave an additional proof of one of his theorems. 

 — Mr. Thomas Muir, F.R.S.E., contributed a note on the con- 

 densation of a special continuant. 



Royal Physical Society, March 19. — Mr. B. W. Peach, 

 F.R.S.E., F.G.S., president, in the chair. — The following com- 

 munications were read : — Notes on a second collection of birds 

 and eggs from Central Uruguay (with exhibition of specimens), 

 by Mr. J. J. Dalglei-h.— On a revised list of British Ophiuroidea, 

 by W. E. Hoyle, M.A., F. R.S.E,, of the Challenger Expedition 

 Office. — On the Breada'bane Mines, by Messrs. J. S. Grant 

 Wilson and H. M. Cadell, B.Sc, of H.M. Geological Survey 

 of Scotland (communicated by permission of the Director General 

 of the Geological Survey). These mines are situated in the basin 

 of the Tay, and the highest— those of Tyndrum — were first 

 noticed. The galena veins were partly in a fissure traversing the 

 qnartzites in close proximity to a large fault which the authors 

 had observed for the first time at Tyndrum. Another vein existed 

 in the fault fissure itself or in the mica schists which were brought 

 down by it against the quartEites. A difference in inclination 

 brought the two fissures together, and at a certain depth they 

 found a conjoint vein. Below the line of junction the ore almost 

 disappeared, as had been proved by the old workings, and very little 

 .ore was visible in the portion of the conjoint vein exposed on the 

 surface. The veins were of quartz with spathic iron and barytes. 



